Masterplan
by Tirainy
Summary: Eggman thought up an amazing plan, which, he believes, will finally make him take over the world, but is this plan really better than the previous ones?
1. Prologue

_Hello! Welcome to a story about adventure of Sonic the Hedgehog! Enjoy!_

_Warning: Possibility of grammar mistakes, incorrect use of tenses and other problems related with writing in not-native language. Also possibility of violence and strong language in later chapters._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or any related characters._

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><p><em>Prologue<em>

_It doesn't matter how much I try, he will always win..._

_Why does he always has to win?_

_I'm the genius scientist! I should win!_

_But it's him every time..._

_Every my plan is greater, deadlier than the one before that!_

_But...he still wins..._

_Because every time there is somebody that will help him..._

_Somebody that will help him..._

_...Wait._

_He always has somebody that will help him..._

_He's making our forces even by allying with more and more people each time..._

_If I get his friends on my side, the balance will be destroyed..._

_I will have his friends and their power..._

_He will be alone...weak...easy to crush..._

_He will lay before me dying, defeated and broken..._

_He won't stand in my way anymore..._

_He won't be able to stop my next plan..._

_And I know what I have to do..._

_**To be continued...**_

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><p>Sometime in the next few days.<p> 


	2. Chapter 1: Let's Start

**Chapter 1: Let's start**

White clouds were floating in the bright blue sky, occasionally hiding sun from time to time. Trees were swaying in the soft breeze, while birds hidden in their crowns chirped their melody.

Sonic likes days like these.

However, they are usually interupted by Eggman's attempts to conquer the world.

Which hasn't happened yet.

There were two possibilities why that hasn't happened. He was crying over his latest defeat or planning something evil again.

He was for the second.

Sonic yawned, slowly opening his eyes. He looked over to the horizon where smoke was rising from its edge. It was from abandoned factory which was now used as Doctor's secret lair, which really wasn't that much secret because Sonic and Tails has known about it for some time already.

Sonic jumped to his feet, immediately feeling heaviness in his muscles as his body was suddenly forced to fight the gravity again. He streched his blue body to get rid of the feeling, inhaling deeply the fresh morning air. „Well, I should probably check what he's doing."

Blue legs fused into single blue blur as Sonic started to run straight to the horizon. He was so deeply in thoughts about how to annoy Eggman that he almost passed Eggman's lair.

Sonic made sharp turn, almost crashing into the wall while doing so, which still made the sensors switch on, alerting Eggman about unexpected visitor.

While the hero of Mobius was trying to find the way into the lair, his enemy inside the building was already thinking of ways how to get him out after he will do so. Because he seriously wasn't in the mood to talk to that annoying hedgehog.

„Hey, what's up, egghead?"

„As usual, hedgehog," answered Doctor, standing up while secretly pushing one of the buttons to alert his robots.

„Aw, come on, Eggman. Don't be so unfriendly. I just came to deliver you a message."

„A message?" Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow while crossing his arms.

„Yeah. The message says: Whatever your plan for conquering the world is, make another one about how to cope with the absolutely sure defeat it will bring to you."

Eggman's face darkened which brought a smirk to Sonic's face

„You're too cocky, hedgehog." Eggman adjusted his eyeglasses as his guards finally arrived.

„Just realistic." Sonic smirked as he started his work of slicing Doctor's robots into pieces.

Eggman's mouth turned to wicked smile as he pressed a button on his console.

Sonic gave a yelp when suddenly the ground under his feet disappeared.

„Bye, hedgehog."

-O-

Sonic woke up somewhere in the forest, lying in a hole in the ground, covered in dirt.

„Ouch!" There was sharp pain in Sonic's back as he tried to get it to straight position.

He remembered falling down through a long shaft. He looked upwards where between leaves were slightly visible bars which were now sealing the exit he fell through.

„That was quite smart actually." Sonic smiled and dusted off some of the dirt. Well, whatever was Eggman planning he will be able to stop it. As always.

Sonic streched his legs and was about to leave, when something purple caught his eye.

„Is that chaos emerald?"

He reached in to the grass under a bush where the shining object was. He was almost holding the object, but then he yanked his hand back when it started to give off blinding light.

„What the-?!"

Sonic immediately closed his eyes. He felt intense heat and then something like a wave of needles making their way through the front of his body until leaving through his back. However, there was no pain left, just a weird feeling in his stomache.

The heat slowly disappeared, but the feeling didn't.

Sonic tried to open his eyes, this time there was no blinding light, just that weird feeling. He was trying to identify that feeling, but suddenly it changed and it started to spread into every part of his body, making him feel insecure and scared out of nowhere. It made him want to curl into the ball and hide somewhere.

Which wasn't on Sonic's usual what-to-do list, so he assumed something strange is going on.

He made few steps back and the feelings started to get weaker and weaker until disappering completely ten steps away from it.

Sonic slowly approached the emerald again, this time more cautiously. There was no flash of light or uneasy feelings this time.

He picked up the emerald from the ground. He checked it for flaws or differences but the shape and size was exactly like the one of chaos emerald.

_I should probably tell Knuckles, he surely knows what was that._

Sonic hid the emerald in his quills and headed to Angel's island.

-O-

Eggman in his lair was in absolutely different situation than Sonic. He was smiling and pleased by how his plan was going so smoothly even without his intervention. That oblivious hedgehog was now unconsciously helping him with his plan.

„You are preparing your own defeat, hedgehog."

_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 2: Too Many Questions

**Chapter 2: Too Many Questions**

The purple gem was surely chaos emerald. The shape, size, even the perfectly flat surface with no scratches at all, it all matched. There was no doubt it was it.

However, there was no chaos energy inside it.

Knuckles furrowed his eye-ridge, concentrating more on his task to draw at least a little bit of chaos energy out from the emerald, hoping there was actually still some of it, even if he can't feel it.

His grip tightened on the gem with such force it would already break a normal jewel. But this one didn't give even cracking sound or a flash of golden light, so charasteristic for chaos energy.

No, it looked and acted just like a absolutely normal gem. Well, except the breaking part of course.

Knuckles looked on the emerald one more time, then released his grip and threw it back to Sonic.

Sonic caughted the gem and looked at Knuckles. „So, it's chaos emerald?"

„Well, it is. But it seems that event you experienced drained all power out of it. "

Sonic raised an eye-ridge. „Do you have any idea what that was?"

„No, but I can ask Tikal when she'll returns."

„She is gone?" Sonic was confused. Tikal never left Master emerald before. Well, she didn't actually have a reason to do so when she is a ghost and don't actually need anything.

„She went with Chaos somewhere. I don't know when they'll come back."

„Okay...call me when they'll be back. I'll be at my house." Sonic hid the emerald and then run to the edge of the flying island.

Knuckles watched as Sonic's form slowly disappeared from his sight. Tikal said she is going to investigate some chaos disbalance. Not working emerald surely was somehow related to it.

_I hope it's nothing serious._

Knuckles sighed.

_But based on how things always go, it will be **very** serious._

Knuckles picked up the Master emerald, wondering where to hide it. If it's some serious disbalance, it will be better to have some way how to control it at their side, and by hiding it he will at least stop the possibility of Eggman taking their advantage from them, if he finds about this situation.

-O-

„Hey, Tails. Have a minute?"

Tails raised his point finger, to make Sonic aware, to wait until he finishes welding.

Sonic rested his back against the wall, taking the emerald out from its hiding place and checking it for any changes. However, there were none.

Tails laid down welding gun and then raised his protective shield to be able to see Sonic normally.

„You are early," stated Tails and started to change his working gloves for his usual ones and putting his welding tools back to their place on shelves.

„I'm not always gone for weeks, you know."

„Yes, I know, but that occures rarely. So, what is the matter?"

Sonic deatached himself from the wall and gave Tails the emerald. „Could you run some tests on it? It seems something is wrong with it."

„Something wrong?"

„Well, yeah, ..."

-O-

„Come on, give it to me. You know how much I love rare jewels."

„I'm not giving you the emerald, Rouge. That's my last word."

Rouge sighed. „You're so adamant, Shadow."

Omega was observing his two colleagues._ It seems organic life forms like to argue a lot._

„Come on, Shads..."

„One more word, Rouge, and I swear I will-"

Shadow's voice was cut off by alarm suddenly going on.

„Split?"

„Yes."

All three of them immediately went in odifferent directions as all lights turned red and sound of approaching guards could be heard.

Shadow was running through long corridor. He turned around the corner, preparing to escape guards before they could find him, but then he found himself at a blind end. He looked behind himself, the sound of steps getting louder.

„Shit."

Shadow reached to his quils and get out the red chaos emerald, preparing to use chaos control.

He opened his mouth to say the phrase that would get him out of here, but stopped, when he was met with unexpected sight. There was Eggman with two robotic guard by his side.

There were two weird things about that. The first was, only two robots is small number for Eggman and the second, there was not his usual flying vehicle.

Eggman's sight fell to emerald in Shadow's hand and back to his face. However, Shadow couldn't see that action because of Eggman's dark glasses.

„I see you found my bait. Now, let's talk about the reason I lured you here..."

Shadow looked on the emerald. _It was just bait?_

„I'm going to give you offer...Join me and your life in my empire will be great..." Doctor was looking somewhere at the ceiling, spreading his arms wide to emphasize his words.

Shadow frowned. _What are you planning this time?_

Doctor smiled smugly. „...Or go against me and I'll destroy you."

Shadow was silent, considering his possibilities. There was only one sure way out. Emerald started to give off faint light as Shadow started to prepare for the teleportation.

„I won't join you."

Doctor frowned. „Bad answer...Fire!"

Thousands of bullets striked forward to dark hedgehog, but they didn't hit they targed because they disappeared in giant wave of chaos energy that followed Shadow's teleportation.

Eggman started to rub his hands. _This is so easy..._

Eggman turned around and started to walk back to the centre of his lair. Pleased smile on his face.

_So easy... _

_**To be continued...**_


	4. Chapter 3: Trouble In The City

**Chapter 3: Trouble in the City**

Rage.

No relief that he was able to escape, no fear of what could happen to his friends, no interest in why this was happening to him.

Only pure uncontainable rage.

Shadow wasn't able to perceive nothing else than this overwhelming feeling. It was so pure, so energetic, so strong. He felt like he could split a planet into halves just by one hit. Nobody would be able to stop him. Even if they'll try, he will crush them until only dust of their bone remains. No mercy, even if they begged for they lives. No man, no woman, not even a child would be spared of his revenge if they dare to stand in his way.

Which was now headed towards a future where the mankind was extinct species.

_They don't deserve what they have. All of them, treating me so badly, though I helped to save the planet so many times..._

_All of them should crawl in the mud before my feet. I am the Ultimate Lifeform. I am more than them!_

_They had their chance. Now, I will show them how their decisions shaped their fate!_

-O-

Tikal blinked. She just felt how wave of chaos energy washed over her like tsunami. But it wasn't that kind of energy that was released while somebody went super. It was wilder, faster and more aggressive.

Echidna girl turned to her left where Chaos was standing, freezed in shock.

„Chaos!"

Chaos jerked and looked at the ghost of echidna girl. He produced some sort of splashing sound while accompanying it with some strange hand gestures and then he looked at the city down the hill.

„Cause of the disbalance is in that city?" Tikal flew to the edge of the cliff, where she could get better view at the city. It was almost invisible in the night, only soft moon light was revealing it.

Tikal's eye-ridges furrowed. _All lights are off? It's middle of the night, at this time the city is most alive._

Chaos produced another splashing sound and jumped of the cliff into the forest under him, completly disappering from Tikal's view.

_Chaos is right. The disbalance is starting to get serious. I'll better inform Knuckles._

There was flash of red light as Tikal changed into her ball form, then she flied off the cliff to tell Knuckles the news.

-O-

Tails was looking into the monitor, where all kinds of datas and graphs were visible. He clicked the last button on his keybord and looked at Sonic. „Well, except the fact emerald has unusually low amount of energy, it seems absolutely fine to me."

„Are you sure? Maybe you should test it one more time."

„I did it twice. If there is anything wrong, I am not able to detect it. You should try Knuckles." Tails shrugged his shoulders, holding the emerald in his left hand. He offered it back to Sonic, but he refused it with wave of hand. „It should stay here, it's no use when it doesn't have energy and I already discussed the problem with Knuckles."

„Somebody called me?" Knuckles suddenly appeared right next to them, scaring both heroes in process.

„Whoa, Knux! You don't know you should knock? I almost had a heart attack!"

„Sorry. I have an important things to do. Would you mind if I hide the Master emerald here? "

Sonic gave him a blank expression. „You want to hide the Master here? Do you know how often Eggman attacks this place?!"

„I can't think of any safer place and at least somebody will look over it all the time."

„And you can't do that because...?" Sonic raised an eye-ridge, crossing his arms in process. Knuckles shrugged. „Eggman is planning something, isn't he? I can't risk losing the Master again."

„Eggman is always planning something, but the plan rarely involves the Master emerald!"

„Well, whatever. I'm leaving it here." Knuckles let the emerald fell to the ground, which made entire room shake and created a hole the ground in the point of landing.

Sonic frowned. He doesn't have enough strenght to move the giant gem anywhere else and Knuckles knows it.

Tails looked at the two older Mobians which were glaring at each other so intensively it looked like they'll start fighting any second now. The young genius coughed, drawing their attention to himself.

„So, what will we do know?"

-O-

Rouge hissed. Her entire back hurt, she had a stabbing feeling in her leg and she was sure one of her wings was broken.

However, Omega behind her was in much worse state. He looked like colander now and he was dangerously swaying from side to side. He looked like he will stop working any minute.

The bat hissed as he lift her arm to use her communicator. Her arm also didn't looked well, there was a long scratch on her upper arm. She clicked the button on the side of the device to active it. „Hey, Shadow, can you hear me?"

„..."

„Shadow?"

„..."

„_Should-bzzzz-I-bzzzz-try to-bzzzzz-locate-bzzzzz-agent Shadow?"_

Yeah, and Omega's voice was also giving Rouge migraine. She turned the device off and turned around, facing Omega, whose arm was now also sparking and there was even a smoke coming from it. She looked him over and decided it will be better if he didn't do anything necessary.

„No. Tell me where is the Tails's workshop, we need to fix you up as fast as possible." GUN Headquartes was too far for both of them in their state and Tails surely would be willing to help them.

-O-

That was the **best**** idea ever**!

Rouge looked dreamily on the most beautiful gemstone she had seen in her entire life, absolutely ignoring Tails, who was now fixing her wing and Knuckles, who was glaring on her.

However, she was brought into reality by a quite strong snap her wing produced when Tails finally get the part of the bones to the correct place.

„Ouch!"

Knuckles smirked as he watched Rouge squirm in pain. He wasn't sadistic person, he just didn't like the way she looked on the emerald. Rouge threw him an angry glare.

„So, what did you do to get beaten up like this?" Sonic asked, while giving Tails another bandage for bat's wing.

„Eggman's robots attacked us," answered Rouge simply. She surely didn't want them to know why that happened.

Knuckles suspiciously raised an eye-ridge. „And that happened for what reason?"

Rouge kept silent. However, Omega mistook it as sign that he should answer. _„We had-bzzzz-retrieved-bzzzz-a chaos emerald."_

The bat glared on her metal colleague. _Damn, why can't robots read indications?_

„Oh, really?" Knuckles smiled. „Well, then you better leave it here, just for safety purpose of course."

„We can't. Shadow has it," said Rouge, smiling softly as she saw corners of echidna's mouth falling.

Sonic's ears raised up as they caught that information. „And where is he?"

The bat shruged. „No idea. We parted when those robots started to go after us. However, I can't contact him, which means he surely can't be near, our communicators have wide range."

-O-

At that exact time, in the city they had absolutely opposite problem. It was too obvious where the black hedgehog exactly was.

Crowds of people were running away from the mad ultimate lifeform as he now was fighting against the ancient god, which was now trying to get back the red emerald from the unwilling hedgehog.

Neither of them cared about the scared people which were running past them, screaming in horror as the buildings surronding them were falling imprisoning some of them under the ruins.

Shadow growled. How dare the Chaos think he can't just come and take **his** emerald? He threw another few chaos spears, which the god evaded again, making the dark hedgehog even more angry.

Chaos furrowed his watery eye-ridges. The dark hedgehg was unusually angry even for himself. Could it be caused be the weird aura the emerald was emitting?

„Chaos control!"

The ancient god started turning around to find the place of appearence of Shadow, but he realized he was too slow as suddenly there was a wave of raging energy coming from the space behind his back.

„CHAOS BLAST!"

-O-

„Knuckles! Knuckles!"

„Huh? Tikal? What are you doing here?" The red echidna turned towards the flying ball of red light, watching it as it slowly started to change its shape.

Tikal, already in her anthromorphic form, focused her worried gaze on the trio before her. „Something bad is happening, Knuckles!"

The male trio all raised their eye-ridges. „What is happening?"

„We, me and Chaos, went to investigate some chaos disbalance. We found out the source of the disbalance is in a city, but it doesn't look good. Well, actually it doesn't feel good. There was a wave of angry chaos from some very strong being."

Sonic stepped forward. „So, there is an another chaos god?"

Tikal shrugged her arms helplessly. „I don't know, I went to tell you before I could see it."

The blue hedgehog raised his eye-ridge. „So, how do you know it's serious?"

„I simply...feel it." All three had inquirer expressions. The female echidna decided to continue after she saw that. „I lived all my ghost life in the Master emerald, I'm sensitive to shifts of chaos energy."

And at that very moment a wave of chaos energy hit her.

„And what exactly can-"

„Whuaaaa!"

The trio stepped forward all of them worried expression on their face. „What's wrong?!"

Tikal's eyes were widely opened, she had her hands pressed against her head and she had mouth opened in shock.

„Tikal...?"

„Chaos!" She turned around, already jumping in motion into the air and at the same time transforming into a ball of light. She swished through the open window and disappeared into the distance.

Sonic was first to react, immediately chasing after her, soon followed by the echidna and few seconds later even Tails.

The blue hedgehog was able to catch up with the female ghost in few seconds, wondering what could possibly happen to her to cause this reaction. The other two behind him had similiar thoughts, but they have been replaced by what-on-Mobius kind when they saw a beam of red light in the distance hitting the sky and changing its appearance into a blood red pool.

All of them realized that the situation is not serious, it's **very** serious. And if they would be able to see Tikal's expression. They would know that this description didn't matched the real thing at all.

-O-

It was like if a bomb hit the city. The buildings had collapsed and their ruins were all over the road cutting off the way for any sort of vehicle. Unconssciouss people were lying on the pavement, most of them badly hurt or imprisoned under the ruins.

The blue hedgehog looked at the disaster, remembering how many times he witnessed such sight already. No matter how many times he saw it, it always made him feel angry and hopeless.

„Tails, help those people. Me and Knuckles will take care of that thing." Sonic looked at the another beam of light, which was coming somewhere from behind one of a skyscrapers. He run forward and turned around the corner, followed by the red echidna at his heels.

He finally was able to see the source of all of this and froze in shock. The echidna girl was sitting next to unmoving body of the watery god, she was crying and desperately tried to wake him up. However, that wasn't the shocking thing. That shocking thing were all of those GUN soldiers, which had surronded the source of all of this destruction. The source was a dark figure, standing on the top of one of those collapsed buildings. He was surrounded by aura of bright red energy, which was coming from the red emerald it held.

Sonic squinted his eyes, trying to identify the figure's identity. The figure was all dark and slender, he had big spikes on the back of his head and there was a patch of something white on his chest.

„Shadow?!"

Red eyes turned their gaze from GUN soldiers on him. They stared at him, daring him to move. The dark hedgehog frowned as he raised his left arm, which still held red emerald, and muttered something.

Sonic snapped out of the shock as he realized the hedgehog had just used chaos control. He turned around, searching with eyes for his rival.

„There he is! Get him!"

The blue hedgehog turned around again and was met with a sight of hundred of soldiers pointing their guns on him. _Oh, come on! Again?!_

He strike forward, shocking the soldiers in the process as he run straight through their formation. He turned around the corner once and then twice to get them off his tail and returned to Tikal. No soldier was there anymore because all soldiers went after him and nobody expected him to return back.

He was already making a step towards Tikal, when suddenly there was flash of light in his vision and he was sent flying into a building thirty foot behind him.

„Gah!" His body had smashed into the building, rapidly forcing him to stop. He gritted his teeth as he touched his left ribs to control if they are't broken.

„Crap!" _Ok, they are broken._

He opened his eyes to see his attacker and was met with so well-known red gaze. „Why the hell are you attacking me?! Do you have amnesia again, or what?!"

Shadow didn't answer and simply raised his hand with emerald. The gem started to emit strange light and suddenly the blue hedgehog could feel how all the rage left his body.

_What the...? _He was mad just a second ago! What was happening here?

Sonic looked at the other hedgehog, which was looking at him angrily, it seemed that he planned to attack him any second now. _Dammit, even I have never made Shadow so angry..._

He could see how the muscles on the dark hedgehog's calfs stretched, sign he planned to launch forward and attack him, but before he could do anything, he was as well sent flying into a building few foot away.

The blue hedgehog smirked as he got up and looked at his rescue. „Took you long, Knux!"

„Not everybody is fastest thing alive."

Sonic's smirk widened as he stood side to side with the red echidna, watching as the dark hedgehog got up from the ground and was now staring at them, looking furious. His spikes were raised, pupils just a tiny line. He looked like an angry animal.

„Should we fight him or capture him?" asked Knuckles, preparing in his mind strategy for the battle.

„Fight him. We need to knock him unconscious."

„I understand." Both of them jumped forward trying to land a heavy hit on their oponent, but failing as he used the fact they were still in the air and throw a chaos spears at them.

Sonic was able to somehow twist out of the way, while Knuckles got a full hit to his shoulder, getting a big shreded wound from it.

The blue hedgehog landed and strike forward. He landed quite hard hit to Shadow's belly, but the other looked like he didn't even realize that and gave another hard punch to Sonic's ribs, shattering them in a process.

The blue hedgehog stumbled and fell to the ground, instinctively covering the injured place with his hand. He gritted his teeth to not cry out from the pain.

The dark hedgehog was too strong. Seriously, his punches had the same giant power like Knuckles's, if not even more. Which was **wrong**.

Shadow was always physically stronger than Sonic, but still weaker than Knuckles. The blue hedgehog was able to match both of those two because of his agillity, because neither of them had such great level of controlling their movements.

Yes, in their previous battles they were equal, but if Shadow was stronger now..._I have to end it fast!_

Sonic jumped from the ground, rolling into a ball, while ignoring the piercing pain in his chest, and striked forward, planning to use spindash on the dark hedgehog.

Knuckles stand up from the ground, holding his badly injured arm. They were two against one and he was able to fight them both at the same time?!

He watched as Sonic landed his attack on Shadow, knocking him down to the ground. But the dark hedgehog immediately got up, punched the blue hedgehog and send him flying to another building again.

Knuckles used that moment that Shadow was focused on the blue hedgehog to attack him. He launched forward, hand clenched in a fist and with all his might he threw a punch to dark hedgehog's temple knocking him to the ground and producing a cracking sound from his skull.

Shadow crashed to the ground, his hand losing grip on the red emerald as a blood started to flow from the newly made wound on his head. The echidna could see the dark hedgehog was in a big pain, but Shadow was stubborn and tried to get up again, his arms trembling as he attempted to do that. The red aura around him was slowly getting weaker and less visible. The hedgehog got up, obviously unsure on his feet, his gaze somehow empty as he searched for something.

Then his gaze catched that something and he run.

Knuckles looked the same way and immediately launched forward, trying to get to the red emerald before the dezorianted hedgehog.

They crashed into each other, emerald flying few meters away as they both attempted to grab it and failed.

Shadow frowned. The aura around him started to turn dark red, stunning the red echidna as it reached him.

_This doesn't feel right._

The aura held fury inside it. Knuckles could practically smell, taste and even hear the anger. It roared in his ears like a tornado, promising destruction.

He looked into the dark hedgehog's eyes, which were losing it's light, becoming dull. Shadow's frown fell as well, making his face expression-less.

_He's mad! He should be growling or something!_

Dark spikes flattened themselves. His body language now showing absolute calmness, giving off absolute opposite of his inner psychical state.

Knuckles didn't dare to move, as the dark hedgehog's gaze was watching him, the aura around him changing it's shape and slowly accumulating into his palms.

He sneaked a gaze to his left, where the blue body of his comrade was still laying among the ruins of the wall, not moving at all. He got a lot of very strong hits and smashing into the wall surely had to hurt him too.

CRACK!

Both males turned their heads to look on the source of the sounds. Tails was standing there, moving his gaze from the destroyed walls under his foot, which broke under his weight, making the other aware of his presence, to them looking nervous.

The fox kid smiled sheepishly. „Ops."

The aura in Shadow's hand glittered as he focused his attention on his new target. He made a sharp motion with his left arm, throwing a red ball on the unprotected fox.

„Knuckles!"

The red echidna immediately reacted, launching forward, but already knowing it's too late. _Dammit!_

But as the ball was about to hit the fox, a blue blur run into a trajectory of the attack, taking the damage itself.

Knuckles eyes widened as he watched the horryfing scene before him. The hero of Mobius fell to the ground, his body sprawled on th ground. Right side of his body was entirely covered in burn like wound, red smoke coming from it.

The gold fox fell to his knees, screaming the name of his brother, who was laying on the ground unmovingly.

The red echidna turned his attention back to the dark hedgehog, whose hand was still outstretched, looking uninterested.

Knuckles tightened his fists, a giant vein appearing on his forehead. He launched forward, aiming for Shadow's head, howling like an angry animal.

The dark hedgehog wasn't able to move out of the way, because he noticed the angry echidna too late. The punch made contact with his injured temple again, oficially making him the receiver of Knuckle's strongest punch ever.

He flew one hundred foot away, flying through four building in process.

Knuckles watched as the dark hedgehog's body laid lifelessly on the ground, the aura disappearing from dark hands entirely. He gave him the last glance, until rushing to help his friends.

Tails was sitting on the ground right next to Sonic's body. The blue hedgehog's eyes were closed, but his rising and falling chest showed he was still alive.

The red echidna gave an relieved sigh. „Good thing, he's so stubborn about dying."

„Don't talk about me like I am not here."

Purple eyes looked towards the source of the sound. Sonic was looking at him with pained smile on his face. „I'll be okay...What about Shads?"

Knuckles frowned. _He just tried to kill you and you care how he's doing?_ „Unconscious."

„And the emerald?"

„Is in good hands, don't worry," said the forth voice, whose owner surely wasn't there a minute ago.

All three males looked up, meeting their gaze with their greatest enemy. „Eggman!"

Doctor was sitting in his flying vehicle, holding the red emerald in his hand and Shadow's lifeless body clutched in metal arms, that were hanging from the vehicle's bottom. „Do you want something?"

„Yes! Let Shadow and the emerald go!" yelled Sonic, his broken ribs digging into his lungs as he screamed at the Doctor.

„You are not in the shape to make me do that," smirked Eggman, enjoying his enemy's pain.

„But I am!"

The vehicle sligtly dropped down, but swung up again in a moment. It was caused by the echidna jumping up and then catching one of the metal arms. He climbed up to settle things with Eggman the **manly** way.

„Dammit!" Eggman pushed button, immediately followed by separation of the metal arm. Knuckles landed on the ground, moving out of the way of the falling metal.

„You-!"

Doctor laughed as he started to fly away. „See you later!"

„Eggman!" The echidna started to chase after the flying doctor, leaving the fox kid and badly hurt hedgehog alone.

„Knuckles, wait! We have get Sonic to the hospital!"

The red echidna stopped his chase after the crazy scientist. He looked back and after giving an angry growl, he returned to his friend's side.

He kooked over the injured hedgehog, then lifted him up, which drew out a sharp yell from the blue hedgehog for this rough treatment. He looked into the distance, where the roof of a hospital could be seen.

„Tails, I'll take him. You go home. If Eggman is collecting emeralds again, we need somebody to look over them and I don't believe that bat not even a bit."

-O-

That bat, also known as Rouge, was bored out of her mind. She was wandering through Sonic's and Tails's house, looking and judging their house. At the first sight, it wasn't anything unusual, it looked like really common house. Well, except when you looked into the refrigeator. She really wondered why on Mobius they had twenty cans full of chili sauce.

Yeah, and the duo's rooms were slightly weird. But nothing really absolutely crazy. Sonic's room had too much of blue items and Tails's was full of mechanic parts.

But she wasn't only bored, she had different reason as well. She saw Sonic run upstairs, holding a purple chaos emerald in his grasp. But she wasn't able to see where he hid it, because she was in the bathroom trying to get the blood stains from her gloves.

She made another round of searching through Sonic's room. She already went through all his drawers, looked under the bed and even checked if it wasn't hidden behind the furniture.

To be honest she was really disappointed that she didn't find the emerald, but it didn't disappointed her as much as the fact she hadn't found any black-mailing material. Seriously, Sonic was 19 years old, he should have a lot of magazines for men!

_Well, he never responded to my flirting...Maybe he's one of those guys, that have different things on mind. But those are rare..._

She looked over the room again, this time searching for _any_ sort of unusual pictures. Suddenly his pillows catched her attention. One was slightly higher than the other.

The white bat went to the bed and picked up the pillow, revealing a shining purple chaos emerald.

She slowly reached to hold the emerald, which was shining more brightly every second. „Come to the mommy, shiny."

And then a blood-freezing scream echoed through the house.

_**To be continued...**_


	5. Chapter 4: Hunt For Emeralds

**Chapter 4: Hunt For Emeralds**

Tails closed the door. He looked into a hallway, at which ends were placed stairs that lead to the second floor. He wondered if he should even try to climb them up, or if he should just go to sleep at the couch.

He was so tired. It wasn't physical tiredness, it was psychical one. The worry for his dear brother drained all energy from him.

Of course Sonic always lived dangerous life, it was nothing new. He worried when the blue hedgehog was somewhere on his adventures, when he couldn't be with him. But he always came back unharmed or with minor injury.

But when he saw his brother like that...He worried. No. He was scared. He was scared he will lose his brother.

Sonic laid there, half of his body burnt, unmoving. He feared what will happen if he touch him. He was scared that he will find out that...

_No. Sonic is alive and safe in a hospital. In few days he will call me to help him escape from the white 'prison'. Then we will eat some chilli dogs and everything will be all right..._

The golden fox walked towards stairs but turned right a few foots before it. He opened the door before him and was met with the calming sight. It was his workshop, his sanctuary.

He entered the worshop, slowly closing the door behind himself. He could see all his finished projects lined by the wall and unfinished ones in the middle of the room. Omega was standing next to the left wall, in offline mode.

Blue eyes looked over the room. Where was Rouge?

Tails walked around the pile of his unfinished projects, searching if the bat wasn't hidden behind them. „Rouge?"

But she wasn't. „Rouge!"

The fox kid run back into the hallway, looking to left and then to right. But the bat was nowhere in sight.

He checked the living room, kitchen, even the bathroom. But she wasn't on the first floor. He decided to went upstairs and was met with another hallway. He was surprised to see door to Sonic's bed room open.

He walked into the open door and his eyes widened in a shock.

The room was a **mess**. A bed was flipped over, half hanging from a broken window. A wardrobe was laying horizontally on the floor and the remains of table were imprisoned under it. Nothing was in its correct state or position, either destroyed or randomly laying on the floor.

Tails's ears perked up as his ears catched a sobbing sound. He turned towards the source of the noise, which was under the bed, but he couldn't see who or what it was.

The golden fox considered moving, so he just could avoid looking under the bed.

_But I am man, I have to do it!_

Tails approached the bed slowly and put aside a curtain, which has fallen on an edge of bed and was now stoping him from finding out the identity of the sobbing person.

„...Rouge?"

The white bat looked with frightened look at him, her gaze jumping from him to somewhere behind him. „Tails, are you alone?"

The fox looked around, unsure what to say. Well, nobody else was there. He noded.

The bat sighed reliviedly. „That's good."

„What happened?"

„That emerald...I wanted to take it, but when I touched it. It..." She wanted to stole the emerald?! „Hey, that emerald is ours!"

Rouge noded her head repeatedly, panic creeping back in her eyes. „I absolutely agree! Keep it! I'm done with chaos emeralds! I don't want to see another, until the rest of my life!"

Tails raised an eye-ridge. „Okay..."

He looked around, noticing the subject of their conversation missing. „And where is the emerald now?"

-O-

The purple chaos emerald shined with bright violet light, blinding anybody that would get too close.

Eggman stood few foots away from it, in safe range away from the gem. He found it lying in the forest when he was traveling to the city. He had wanted to see the destruction the dark hedgehog caused, but this was worth that he missed the show.

He looked at the red emerald, which still rested in his palm. It wasn't shining as brightly as the purple one, but still quite close to it.

It was regenerating it's energy, while the purple one was already full and prepared for attack. He brought the emerald to his eyes, to watch its surface. There were tiny cracks in its surface, that anyone would miss if he wouldn't search for it.

_It's working. _Doctor smiled a cruel smile. He looked at the still unconscious dark hedgehog, which was imprisoned in chaos-proof container, so even if he would use any sort of chaos attack he wouldn't be able to get out.

His body was emitting a red light, the same light as the emerald's.

Eggman opened the container and placed the emerald next to dark hedgehog's body. He closed it again and the watched as both hedgehog and the emerald started to shine more.

The cracks on the gem started to grew bigger and more visible, while Shadow's wounds now started to heal so fast you** could** see them healing.

Doctor watched the unusual show that was happening before his eyes.

A birth of living chaos emerald.

-O-

Tails sighed. He sat at his working table and was mindlessly tapping something on his keyboard, not even thinking about what he is doing, but about the trouble in form of Eggman.

Eggman was planning something.

Sonic won't be able to fight for months. Their first line of defence was crushed.

Knuckles wouldn't be able to take his place, to stand alone against Doctor's machines. They need super-fast reflexes, somebody that can dodge bullets, not somebody with giant strength.

In this situation he would ask Shadow for help, but for obvious reason he couldn't.

Maybe Espio could help? He was ninja, right?

But now when he thought about it, he had never seen him run or anything. He was just really good about getting somewhere unnoticed.

_We don't have anybody that can take Sonic's place. Our only chance is surprise._

The fox kid stopped in his automaticized action. He saved his work and headed to a garage. He will have to get everybody he knows to help them.

-O-

„Is everybody here?"

Blue eyes scanned the living room to check eveyrybody is here. There were Chaotix, sitting by a window. Amy, Cream with Cheese and Big with Froggy were sitting on the couch. Knuckles was standing in the door frame and Blaze and Silver were sitting on the other side of the room than Chaotix. Omega and Rouge, who was now almost in her usual mood, were standing at the very back of the room, trying to stay unnoticed by the rest.

„The problem is Doctor Eggman is planning something-"

„Where is my Sonikku?"

Tails sighed. He hoped he will be able to avoid this matter. He looked at the pink hedgehog and prepared for her outburst, that surely will follow. „...In a hospital."

„What?! And you didn't tell me?!" Amy was holding her hammer again, probably wanting to smash something or someone with it.

„He didn't wanted to worry anybody!"

„I'm his girl-friend! I should know!"

The fox kid frowned slightly. There goes her girl-friend thing again. He wondered why his brother still put up with this. „He's stabilized, don't worry about him. And take your seat again."

Amy pouted, but sat back down. Tails turned his attention back to the entire crowd. „Now, we can continue."

He took a deep breath. „Eggman is planning something. We don't know what yet, but it involves strangely acting chaos emeralds. They're now very dangerous for us," Rouge flinched at this comment, „Doctor is trying to collect them all, so we need to outrun him."

Blaze was first to react. „You want us to collect them, before he'll do."

„Yeah, we need to do it as fast as possible. I will give you all chaos radars and comunicators."

Cream raised her arm. Tails binked surprisedly. She was probably only one today that waited for permission to speak. „Yes, Cream?"

„Will Mr. Sonic join us?"

Tails shook his head. „No, he will be out for few months."

„What?! You didn't tell me it was that serious!" Amy's hammer appeared again as she was coming closer to the golden fox, planning how to use her hammer to find out in how bad condition the blue hedgehog really is.

„He has five broken ribs and burn covering his entire left side. That is his state. Now, shut up and sit!" exploded Knuckles suddenly. It seems this day was really hard for him.

There were few gasps from the crowd as they procesed that information. That sounded very serious.

„Mr. Sonic will be alright, right?" The small rabbit looked stressed and there were tears in corners of her eyes.

„He will. Lot of doctors is taking care of him."

Blaze got up from her seat, already feeling need to start an action. „We should start our work immediately. We need to be faster than Eggman and without Sonic at our side, our chances are now even."

„Well, actually we are in disadvantage...Shadow is now at Eggman's side."

-O-

It wasn't really correct statement. Shadow wasn't really on Eggman side. He was simply against them. Well, he was actually against everybody.

The dark hedgehog was still laying in the container in his unconscious state, red chaos emerald by his side. Cracks, that used to be only at its surface, were now reaching almost to emerald's core and it was only question of time it'll break apart.

Dark body was covered in red blanket of energy, making the hedgehog look like he's actually in some sort of super form.

Small cracking sound could be heard from the emerald as another crack appeared at its surface.

It was only a question of time now.

-O-

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

„How does this thing work?"

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

„It looks like game controller! We need to use some sort of combo! Try circle, cross, square..."

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

„There's no square! Hey, Espio! Don't you have idea where I should find the square?"

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

„..."

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

„Where is Espio?"

-O-

Amy jumped hapilly as she carried a blue stone in her palms. Wide smile on her face. „My Sonikku will be so proud of me!"

„Ms. Amy..."

„And the he will kiss me and tell me how great job I did!"

„Ms. Amy."

„He'll say: Amy, you heped me so much. You're such a great woman. Do you want to marry-?"

„Ms. Amy!"

„Oh, sorry, Cream. I was day dreaming. What do you need?"

„I don't think that's an chaos emerald. It doesn't shine, it's too small and it doesn't really have the shape."

The pink hedgehog turned the stone in her hands. Now, when she mentioned it...

Cream covered her ears as Amy started to use a language inappropriate for her age and gender.

-O-

„We have been walking here for two hours already! It's not here, Blaze!"

The purple cat growled as she send her teammate a glare. „Tails's device says it is here! Stop whining and be useful!"

Silver pouted. Why wouldn't Blaze believe him? She believed Tails's device more than him, her best friend!

Or..._maybe he isn't her best friend?_ The hedgehog panicked. He can't lose her! It was a miracle she remembered him after the future was changed! He can't lose her because of his impatience!

„...Silver!"

„What?!" Silver jerked his body back, as he realized that Blaze was screaming into his ear.

„Look."

Golden eyes left her face and looked at the device, which was now beeping madly. „We are standing at it?"

„No, you are **it**."

Silver blinked donfusedly.

„It's supposed to find chaos signals. And you are giving out a chaos signal as well..."

„We have been trying to find myself all this time?!"

-O-

„It's nice to fish, right?" asked Big, holding his fishing stick while watching a calm surface of a pond.

„Why are we doing this? We should be searching for chaos emeralds," answered Omega, trying to find reasons for this strange act this feline called 'fishing'.

„No need to. Others will find them. Just enjoy fishing."

Omega looked towards the pond and then on the fishing stick in his metal hands.

_Mobians are strange species... _

-O-

Rouge smiled drunkily as she took another sip from her bottle. „What is your theory?"

„What?" Knuckles looked at the white bat, which was now supporting herself on his shoulder.

„You are an expert on chaos...stuff, right?"

„Not really..."

The white bat laughed. „But you know a lot about it." She didn't wait for his response and continued. „Emeralds doing weird stuff has to have some reason, doesn't it? So, what do you think is that reason?"

Knuckles didn't really know answer that. „Well, it's not called chaos for no reason at all."

„And that means...?"

„Well, Tikal once told me a legend about the creation of Chaos emeralds. It supposed to contain emotions of very powerful ancient shaman, who was called Chaos. The shaman heaped his chaotic emotions into emeralds so he wouldn't destroy world in an anger fit. However, he felt more dull each day and soon he was left emotionless. He didn't wanted to do anything. He just stayed in his house all the time and one day his tribe come to ask him about the predications of future. They found him standing in middle of the room, his body turned into a green gemstone. Though centuries the gemstone slowly lost its shape and turned into shape of emerald-Master emerald."

„...That was deep." Rouge was looking at the ground, memory flowing into her conscious mind. When she touched the purple emerald, she actually heard somebody scream...

„AHHHH!"

Wait, that wasn't in her head.

_**To be continued...**_


End file.
